In a principal aspect, the present invention relates to an improvement for a cabinet of the type having a sliding door known as a tambour door and, more particularly, to the construction of the tambour door for such a cabinet.
Computer disks, computer tapes and other similar items are often maintained or stored in specially configured and constructed cabinets. Storage in such cabinets provides not only a security factor, but also provides a means to environmentally protect the disks or sensitive items. Since such cabinets are often manufactured in a configuration which will readily receive the computer disks or tapes, the cabinets have a modular size.
Access to such cabinets is often effected by means of sliding front doors rather than folding or single piece doors. Typically, such a door, known as a tambour door, is comprised of a series of vertical panels or slats which are joined one to the other by a hinge mechanism. The door formed from such panels than may slide horizontally in a track which is defined in the cabinet so that the door may slide to one side or the other in the cabinet, to thereby expose the interior or contents of the cabinet. The sliding door may include a lock along one edge which may be fastened to the side of the cabinet or released from the side of the cabinet to permit sliding of the door. The cabinet itself may include an internal panel, which is a false panel behind which the sliding door may slide. The internal panel may also serve to support a shelf or a series of shelves.
As previously stated, the tambour door or sliding door may be comprised of a series of vertical panels, slats or elements which are hinged or connected together along each side elongated edge thereof. Each panel is often fabricated from a molded or extruded plastic material. In order to enhance the rigidity of the door, vertical, metal reinforcing bars are often provided for various vertical panels along the width of the door. Thus the door can remain rigid for an extended height because of the reinforcing bars. However, with various types of hinge constructions, the panels tend to slide vertically one with respect to the other. In order to preclude such relative sliding action, it has been the practice in the past to attach a flexible, horizontal fabric strip across the width of the door formed by the panels. The horizontal strip prevents the panels from sliding with respect to each other and thereby maintains the integrity of the door.
A problem which has been noted, however, is that the fabric strip may degrade or become detached from the vertical panel members. Thus there has developed a need for an improved hinge construction which will maintain the vertical panels properly aligned and oriented one with respect to the other despite the constant use of the sliding or tambour door.